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Gruevski ‘passed through’ Montenegro

A former prime minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) who is on the run following a prison sentence on corruption charges entered Montenegro earlier this week from Albania but left the same day, Montenegro’s police said Friday.

Police said Nikola Gruevski, who was FYROM prime minister from 2006-2016, passed through Montenegro on Nov. 11 but did not say which country he went to next before his arrival in Hungary. Police said he wasn’t on any wanted list when checked on the borders.

Montenegro media say he then went to Serbia which borders Hungary where Gruevski is seeking political asylum. Gruevski, 48, said on Tuesday on Facebook that he was in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

FYROM has called on Hungary to extradite Gruevski, a close ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Montenegro’s Vijesti daily said Gruevski, who fled FYROM rather than serve a two-year prison term, was escorted by Hungarian diplomats when entering Montenegro by car and when they went to Serbia in another car with diplomatic license plates.

The report, which includes the names of the Hungarian diplomats who escorted Gruevski and the diplomatic license plates on the two different cars, suggests that the Hungarian government was involved in his passage.

The Hungarian government said earlier it did not assist Gruevski in leaving FYROM.

If accurate, the report shows the full route Gruevski took from his homeland and through the Balkans to reach Hungary. [AP]